


Out of the Ice

by KiwiKat_Writes



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: First Meetings, Gen, Ice, Not Beta Read, POV Aang (Avatar), Two Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:01:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24750475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KiwiKat_Writes/pseuds/KiwiKat_Writes
Summary: How long had it been since he’d felt the sunlight? It felt like an eternity and a moment had passed all at once, a hundred years and a hundredth of a second. He had been lost to cold, dark sleep early on.
Relationships: Aang & Katara (Avatar), Aang & Sokka (Avatar)
Kudos: 18





	Out of the Ice

How long had it been since he’d felt the sunlight? It felt like an eternity and a moment had passed all at once, a hundred years and a hundredth of a second. He had been lost to cold, dark sleep early on. 

His plan of flight had been only half-baked, half-justified from the start. He had wanted to flee, but the weight of the world on his shoulders had kept him in place, frozen him when he thought he had made up his mind.

When he finally had, it was too late. 

_ Appa was lowing, the normally calm sound frantic over the crashing of the waves and the howling of the wind. He himself was panicking, white-knuckling the plant fiber reins attached to Appa’s curved horns. The saddle was extra weight, but he hadn’t been able to force himself to take it off. He might need it, when he met up with Bumi and Kuzon and wanted to take them flying with him. Of course he would! _

_ And this was how the 12-year-old, birthday just three days ago, was flying through a tempest where the rain lashed at his simple cloak and Appa struggled to stay aright. _

_ “Yip yip, Appa! Come on, we just have to make it to the mountain range! That’s all, okay buddy?” Even his own voice sounded too optimistic, too young for the situation he was in. There was a reason no Airbender monks under the age of 16, and subsequently the age of their tattooing, never left the island. But he had his tattoos already, so he should be fine! _

_ The wind roared around him, grabbing at his clothes like a vengeful lemur taking revenge for a squashed fruit, or a majestic goldeneagle clawing a cloudmouse into its grasp. It was the strongest he’s ever felt it, even high in the mountains as he lived.  _

_ He already knew that there was no hope for him to even try Bending these gusts. They were wild and angry, and their spirits wouldn’t take kindly to being imprisoned. This was one of the things he was taught as a monk, by Gyatso himself. Everything in this world had a spirit, and the angry ones were not ones to be controlled. That was a stupid idea, even for the strongest of Airbenders.  _

_ Appa’s lowing was louder now, and he blinked upon realizing that everything had grown calm. What was going on? The storm shouldn’t have been over already, ones that size lasted days before getting close to running dry. _

_ A drip of moisture landed on his shoulder, and a darkness fell over his small, bony frame. He froze, before looking up and seeing the wall of water threatening to overtake him, blocking the wind from reaching him. _

_ “Appa, go! Fast, fast!” he jerked the reins to make his concerns that much clearer, and Appa let out a bark-like noise before they sped up. _

_ Then water was surrounding him, Appa was screaming, he was screaming, and the water was carrying them into the depths- _

_ His eyes snapped open, and the world went blue. He was vaguely aware of a prickling, burning sensation along the arrows tattooed across his body, and a gust of air shooting out from his small presence. Appa was just behind him, and his last thought was of his mentor as the world went cold and dark. _

A cracking noise, then two, then three and he felt his mind stir. His vision was still blue, but he was just aware of the sensation of his limbs not fully being in his control.

Then he was tilting forward, and as his eyes shut he let himself rest in the pitch blackness yet again. Warm, gloved (?) hands caught him, and he heard himself speak. His voice was hoarse, and felt slightly alien. How long had he been asleep? Probably just a couple of days, of course. It wasn’t unheard of for Airbenders.

“I need to ask you something…”

A voice, one he couldn’t place, from above him.

“What?”   


“Please… come closer…” Why couldn’t he tell who the voice was? It sounded both new and familiar. In fact, it sounded a little bit like the one Waterbender girl he had met three weeks ago, on the way home from visiting Gumi.

“What is it?” It was the girl! It sounded the exact same! All at once, excitement flooded his body; now that he was away from the Air Temple, he could have fun again!

So he opened his eyes, and the question he had been preparing for when he had seen her again finally burst out.

“Will you go penguin sledding with me?” The girl was… not the one he had thought she was. Her hair was darker, and instead of slate grey with specks of black, her eyes were a pure sky blue.

“Uh… sure, I guess?” Her tone was slightly questioning, but he waved it off. Hadn’t she ever been penguin sledding before? That was stupid, of course she had! If she hadn’t, she was living a depressing childhood.

He focused a tiny bit and felt the air rush under him as he Bent himself to his feet, and a boy he hadn’t noticed before exclaimed in surprise. He ignored the sound at first, looking around.

The sea looked much different now. It was too bright…

“What’s going on here?” The boy spluttered, before shouting an answer back.

“You tell us, how’d you get in the ice-” The butt of a spear he was holding came forward and started poking at his head. “-and why aren’t you frozen yet?” He gently batted at the spear butt without thinking about it.

“I’m not sure…” His mind flashed to his companion then, and he gasped in shock. How could he forget? He scrambled over the edge of the weird ice sphere and looking inside, relief swamping his veins when he saw Appa snuffling inside, calm.

“Appa! Are you alright? Come on, wake up buddy!” He peeled the flying bison’s eye open, noting the slight cloudiness of sleep in Appa’s eyes, before he hopped down and grabbed his lip. He tried to open his bison’s mouth, before a slobbery tongue darted out and licked his whole frame. He laughed as it passed over his sides, both from the ticklish sensation against his ribs and the relief he felt seeing Appa awake and okay.

“You’re okay!” Behind him, snow crunched, then the boy spoke up again.

“What even  _ is _ that thing?” His tone was both incredulous and confused, as if he didn’t know what a flying bison was. That was weird, flying bison were well-known across the Bending world!

“Uh, this is Appa, my flying bison!” He turned, just in time to see the boy’s face drop into an almost scarily familiar sarcastic face.

“Riiiiiiight. And this is Katara, my flying sister.”

“Hey!” He noted the name Katara for the girl, before turning back to Appa.

The bison’s face was screwed up into a grimace, and with a yelp he ducked just in time to dodge the blast of snot and mucus that flew out of his nose. The boy screeched in disgust, and he looked up to him trying to wipe the greenish substance off of his blue robes.

“Oh- don’t worry, it’ll wash out!” Ignoring the boy’s disgust, he addressed them both. 

"Soooo… do you guys live around here?" The blue-roped boy snorted once before turning to 'Katara'. 

"Don't answer that! Did you  _ see _ that crazy bolt of light!? He was probably trying to signal the Fire Navy!" He noted that the boy was paranoid, and over-exaggerated, in pretty much everything. Katara scoffed at him, and the sheer disbelief in her voice made him falter.

"Oh, yeeeah, I'm  _ sure _ he's a spy for the Fire Nation. You can tell by the evil glint in his eyes." The boy turned to him, looking deep into his eyes. He offered a wide grin, earlier excitement only slightly off-set by confusion. Katara just shook her head.

"The paranoid one is my brother, Sokka. You… never told us your name?" His eyes widened, and he mentally smacked himself in the face. How had he forgotten?

"Oh, my name's A-" His sentence was cut off by a tickle in his nose, and he could only try to fight it until-

"AACHOO!" The gust sent him rocketing into the air, and he only briefly heard Katara's squeak before Bending the wind to let him down slowly. Sokka was gaping at him, mouth comically wide, and Katara's own mouth was in a surprised 'o'. He landed, and sent another grin to the two.

"I'm Aang!"

**Author's Note:**

> Yo posting on a phone is wa c k  
> Anywaus, I recently started watching ATLA and fell in love, so I'm writing a two-shot on Aang's perspectove of the first episode!  
> If you enjoyed, feel free to leave a kudos or drop a comment! See yall around, you beautiful kiwis!


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